Hallmarking continues to drop in September

Total hallmarking figures for September fell again compared with the previous year, dragged down by steep declines in gold and palladium hallmarking.

Total hallmarking dipped 1.1 percent on the same month on 2009, according to the Assay Office, dropping by about 16,000 items to 1.39 million.

Gold hallmarking continued to decline, down 16.7 percent to just less than 509,300 items, as high metal prices continue to putt consumers and designers off gold jewellery.

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Palladium also took a hit in year-on-year comparisons due to tough comparisons in 2009 when a surge was created by retailers recalling palladium items to be hallmarked when the newly registered hallmark became available.

Platinum and silver both had a strong month, with year-on-year comparisons up by about 11 percent each to about 25,500 and 847,800 respectively.

Silver continued to dominate hallmarking, representing 57 percent of all articles hallmarked and the Assay Office said that this is “a trend that looks set to continue”.